Hamels Cruises To 10th Win

The Phillies started out their 10 game home stand the right way defeating the Colorado Rockies 7-2. Cole Hamels looked fantastic on the mound tonight going eight innings while only allowing two runs and six hits. Hamels also had seven strikeouts, which puts him one away from 100.

Hollywood Hamels Spotlight –

This is the 10th victory of the year for Hamels. The Phillies only have 32 wins as a team so you can see how important it is for the front office to make every effort to resign him. It looked like Hamels was done after pitching the seventh, but Charlie Manuel brought him out to lead off the bottom half of the inning and he lined a ball into left.

Three batters later, Hamels read a grounder off the bat of Hunter Pence to score from third. Hamels threw 113 pitches and did issue three walks. He joins Lance Lynn and RA Dickey as the only pitchers in the Majors with double digit wins.

Hamels struck out five batters in a row at one point and 13 straight overall.

Getting on base –

Jimmy Rollins was on base four times tonight; two via hits and two walks. Rollins average is up to .261 and he is looking like the JRoll of old. At the plate tonight, Rollins average around 3.5 pitches per at bat. The at bats he did swing early in, he got hits. He is taking is time and appears to be picking his pitches. Getting Rollins on base early and often is going to a big key to the success of the Phillies as they turn this season around. Yes, I think they can.

Mayberry booming –

In the beginning of the season, John Mayberry Jr. was having his issues at the plate so a lot of the left field time was given to Juan Pierre. It finally appears now that Mayberry is making the necessary adjustments at the plate to produce. In his last five games, Mayberry is hitting .381 with four home runs and 10 RBIs. One of those home runs came tonight in the fourth inning with a man aboard. He has now homered in three straight games.

Vote for Chooch –

Carlos Ruiz is currently third in voting for this years All Star game in Kansas City. He is trailing the Giants’ Buster Posey and the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina. Even though he is behind, Ruiz is making it hard to ignore him this season. After a 2-for-4 performance tonight, with his ninth home run, Chooch is batting .358 with 38 RBIs and has already tied his career high in home runs. Go online, get on your phones and vote for Chooch!

Defense, defense –

I won’t go into it too much, but the defense looked good out there tonight. Shane Victorino had another outfield assist tonight, Jimmy Rollins made some good plays at short and Ty Wigginton at first scooped some throws in the dirt. Wiggy has also looked real good positioning himself on the base for different angled throws. Ruiz threw a ball from the back stop tonight on a dropped third strike that took Wigginton across the bag and he moved effortlessly. This is the kind of stuff that wins ballgames; the little things.